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March 06, 2004
Hippocrates? Hypocrisy!
Posted by Dana Blankenhorn
In Texas doctors have forgotten their oath. (And don't forget you can buy your own cadeusus badge here.)
The Hippocratic Oath is pretty clear. Your first priority is always the patient. This is why we have cost-shifting. Poor people are cared for in emergency rooms, and the doctors (through the hospitals) find ways to raise prices to everyone else to pay for that free care. They don't have a choice. Their oath says give care.
A doctor who stands around and lets a patient die over money does not deserve the honorific. He (or she) is a money-grubbing quack.
So I'm not arguing here over issues like "database compilations." Texas doctors, or third parties, are free to compile whatever databases they want to. In this case, we have a database of people who've sued doctors in the past, real and alleged victims of malpractice.
What I'm going to argue with is this. Doctors use the database to refuse care. As the New York Times headline has it, "Hire a Lawyer, Forget About A Doctor?"
Any doctor who refuses care should be put before a medical board, today, and have their license to practice medicine taken from them, today. If the medical boards are conspiring with those doctors, refusing to enforce their own ethical guidelines, then their whole profession is a sham.
Maybe those are the jobs we should be outsourcing. Oh, wait. We already do. Thus does the market take its revenge.
Comments (5)
+ TrackBacks (1) | Category: ethics
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Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for over 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the "Interactive Age Daily" for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age, and dozens of other publications over the years.
1. brian on March 6, 2004 08:03 PM writes...
I disagree here. Doctors, like anyone else has the right to refuse new customers and select those whom they will treat. What they cannot do is fail to provide care during an emergency. That is not what the group is discussing.
Permalink to Comment2. Austin on March 8, 2004 09:59 PM writes...
I disagree with you completely. Sham lawsuits have forced doctors to do this. Blame the ambulance chasing lawyers for this. I know of doctors that will not treat lawyers either. There are also companies that will not rent or sell property to lawyers because they sue at a rate considerably higher than the average individual. Don't blame the effect; blame the cause.
Permalink to Comment3. Dana Blankenhorn on March 9, 2004 09:01 AM writes...
I happen to believe in ethics. When you make an ethical commitment, you are bound to it.
The ethical commitment of a doctor is to give care, period. Those who refuse should leave hte profession.
Some have. There's one in Vermont who left family practice and became a politician....
Permalink to Comment4. Kurt on June 10, 2004 11:02 AM writes...
Where are lawyer ethics when they bring frivolous medical lawsuits to court? You reap what you sow.
Permalink to Comment5. mark on September 3, 2004 04:26 PM writes...
I think you need to do a bit more research into the private practice of medicine. In order to provide any care a physcian must be able to keep his business afloat. If you look at the reimbursement rates- they have been frozen or gone down for the last several years. Mds must now see more people spending less time with each. Many Doctors are using "Physcian extenders" to help carry the load needed to reach a profit. We did take an oath to help others, but it is tough to keep turning ones cheek. Most MDS are "trapped" into a location- house offic, kids, etc. and we try to make it work. I'm in Family Practice and I know how close it gets- Perhaps you think private MDs are nailing down 2-3-4 or even $800,000 per year. Well we're not. The average take home is around 40% of gross due to our ever increasing overhead. Many of us have bills to pay including education loans of $150,000. Most of us give our hearts and our souls to our patients- but once you have had a malpractice case brought against you life changes- even when you did no wrong. To have the Monday morning quaterback lawyer accuse you of something terrible is bad enough but when you see how the cost of Malpractice continues to climb- the number of frivolous law suits filled- the number of multimillion dollar settlements given-quite often makes me not want to care for such rattlesnakes. What is your solution to this problem? How do you propose to get the lawyers off their gravy train?
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